I will not play tug o’ war. I’d rather play hug o’ war. Where everyone hugs instead of tugs, Where everyone giggles and rolls on the rug, Where everyone kisses, and everyone grins, and everyone cuddles, and everyone wins. ~ Shel Silverstein

Happy Cool Down!

In the San Francisco Bay area we rarely get really hot, at least not on the coast. So in the city and along the coast when it gets around eighty degrees we kind of suffer. Part of it is not being used to it, part of it is the fact that very few of us have air conditioning. So for my Friday off I was looking for something to do the night before and had kind of settled on something I wasn’t really excited about. Then I saw a post on social media, someone asking for SF vacation recommendations, things to do. Someone mentioned taking the ferry to Sausalito and I had it. So I decided to take the lunchtime ferry from San Francisco to Sausalito. The idea of both having a half hour boat ride out on the bay, and a couple of hours walking along the ocean in Sausalito seemed like a great way to beat the heat.

So I started out by taking BART over to the Embarcadero and visiting one of my favorite sculptures on the way to the Ferry Building to catch the ferry.

The ride across the bay to Sausalito turned out to be gloriously foggy and cold and was a lovely ride over. Had a lovely chat with some tourists who were interested in the biology of the bay and were taking a not so direct route to Muir Woods. Upon arriving in Sausalito I met the Pirate Reverend, Pete Romanowski. He claims to have been on a house boat in Sausalito since 1964, and to hanging out on this bench for the last 18 years. He also claimed that the houseboat spot he had was where Otis Reading wrote Dock of the Bay. Now a Sausalito houseboat was where he penned the first verse of the song, so who knows. Well Reverend Pete was busking/hustling on the waterfront, and he seemed like an interesting guy, so I sat down for a rev to rev chat. He was entertaining as hell and we had a nice fifteen minute chat, then I dropped a five in his guitar case and said goodbye, he said, see you on the way back out.

Sausalito is lovely little seaside town. There are a lot of art galleries and shops and even a little seaside museum. It’s why I used the Shel Silverstein quote, turns out he lived in Sausalito during some of his most productive years. It was a nice mellow time walking around the town. I decided to get lunch at the Napa Valley Burger Bar and then a little apple strudel at a cafe for desert, both were excellent. However, I have to say the Napa Valley Burger Bar makes one hell of a burger, I had their bacon burger and it was fabulous.

There were some interesting little bits of town, a front yard with a really fabulous decoration. A nice little sea lion sculpture on the beach and an interesting mailbox sculpture.

There also was of course, as expected, lots of great little parks and flowers over town, and we all know I like a good flower shot.

Made my way back across the bay and the fog had significantly pushed out so got some great views of the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, boats on the bay, Alcatraz and the city from the water.

It was a great decision and a lovely day, glad I made the decision to flee the heat for the afternoon.

Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane